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The Master Forge Saga
=Rise of the Infinity Warriors= Lab Report 2xt4res987d87q43: subject DXE Suits: Dual-phase eXperimental Exoskeleton, created by fusing the two faction kits together. Paradox project. Current hybrids are: Sentinel Blade Guardian Venture Shadow Hunter Paradox Nightshade Assembly Mechwarrior Recommend permanently installing prototypes on willing soldiers of each faction. End File DELETE DELETE DELETE Prologue No fury of dragon, nor terror of horseman could match the twisted brilliance of the Forge. An ancient artifact from years long past, its builders disassembled ages ago, the Forge still remains. At the time of its rediscovery, the maelstrom had not yet invaded. So no one noticed when a minifig with not-quite-authentic movements dropped something near a property launchpad. No one noticed when the launchpad was engulfed in a slightly purplish tinge. The Master Forge system was simple, efficient, and deadly. When unsuspecting minifigures launched to what they thought was their property, they found bricks and models beyond their wildest dreams. Unfortunately, as they began building, all the imagination they used was going straight to power the Master Forge. Using the now-corrupted imagination as power, the Forge churned out robotic troops, vehicles, and weapons for the maelstrom. The captured minifigures never noticed. After all, if you had a property with unlimited bricks and models, would you WANT to leave? This was what made the Forge so efficient, so powerful, and so deadly. The most horrible creation to come out of the maw of the Forge factories was the Infinity Warriors. Extremely tough maelstrom creations, these dragon-winged knights could take down nearly anything. That, in itself, was not what made them so deadly though. Wherever one was destroyed, the corrupted maelstrom spark within them pulled bricks from anything near, including minifigs, to rebuild the Warrior. Thus the name. Of course, the newly created Nexus Force tried to shut down the infected launch pads. But it was too late. Hundreds of people had already rocketed into into forge traps. The Forge was churning out robotic troops and Infinity Warriors full speed, and could be modified to make almost anything. It had also created a general, Vortex Darknova, to lead the Forge Army. Although they seemed unbeatable, the infinity warriors were about to get a very real shock, straight from the Paradox labs of Gilatter 8... Chapter 1 Somewhere under the smoking, twisted, disintegrated ruins of the Paradox laboratory of Gilatter 8, a stasis capsule burst open. No purposeful opening was this, merely an exertion of the occupants's power. With the main laboratory destroyed, the only thing left of the project was this chamber. To be more specific, the residents of this chamber. Climbing from the wreckage of the shattered stasis capsule was a minifigure. But no average minifigure was this. Tall and powerful he stood, towering over the lab equipment and diagnostic consoles. Every step he took put a new dent in the floor. A hawk-like helmet obscured his features. His entire body was coated in cybernetic armor, and a massive cannon protruded from his left arm. Strange tubes and wires connected various parts of his armor to the helmet. Grasped tightly in his right hand was a massive purplish-black staff. He had a vague memory of something previous to his current existence, then of dark and pain and fear, but those were unimportant. All that was important was that he was a Paradox Nightshade, and his name was Fusion. ---Fusion - Paradox Nightshade, wields a Blasterstaff and an Orb Cannon. Scarred from years of fighting and lab accidents. Volunteered for the program because, "I had nothing to lose, and everything to gain." Has the curious ability to telekinetically disassemble non-organic items and re-purpose them.--- In the middle of the smoking ruins of the laboratory, a hatch opened. The maelstrom forces running amok through the wreckage of the Gilatter 8 lab did not notice, nor care, about a single hatch in the middle of a massive complex. They should have. As Fusion leaped out of the bunker, the automatic targeting systems in his helm immediately bracketed a target, a large arachnid, in the middle of a ruined testing ground. Fusion was confused by the chaos in the wreckage, but he trusted his helmet guidance systems. He powered up his Blasterstaff and charged into the heart of the maelstrom formation. Fusion laughed grimly as he laid waste to the purple invaders with his Orb Cannon. He backhanded a Stromling and sent it flying into a wall, ten feet away. As Fusion blasted another Ronin into bits, his helmet systems warned him of an incoming attack. He instinctively threw up an energy shield around himself to block the fireball. While not entirely sure exactly how he had done that, he still turned toward the offending dragon to attack. Before he could begin, however, the dragon rumbled, groaned, and disintegrated into bricks. ---Darkwolf - Assembly Mechwarrior. Can construct powerful exoskeletons for himself in mere seconds. No one exactly knows how much imagination he has, as he accidentally blew out the testing machine before the test was complete. Has a greater understanding of technology than any other Nexus Force member. Doesn't talk a lot - usually limits communication to "Yes Sir", "No Sir", "Loaded and Ready", and "Maelstrom Sighted". Carries a powerful minicannon specifically designed to blast things into component bricks.--- A tall orange figure plowed through the pile of bricks that had once been a dragon. He jumped, rolled, and then blasted an ape into shreds with a nasty-looking rotary cannon. Fusion raised his Blaststaff to defend himself, but he instinctively knew that this one was nothing like the purple ones who wished to destroy him. He felt a sudden shock, and pain exploded in his back. A spiderling had sneaked up on him while he was distracted. It raised a foot high to smash him...and then slid several feet backwards as a fiery blue vortex opened up behind it. As the spiderling slid backwards, the blade that would have pierced Fusion's back stabbed into the ground several feet away. About twenty feet away, a hooded minifigure in green stood silently, face contorted with intense concentration. The vortex of fire that continued to drag the spider backwards emanated from his outstretched hand. The monster gave an odd moan, and then disappeared into the blue fire. ---Olarin - Venture League Shadow Hunter,uses dual Bow Shard knives that combine to form a longbow. Is what some might call insane, while others may label it merely "creative". Joined the DXE program, "Because it sounded fun".--- Time had ceased to exist for Fusion. He was now fighting in a triangle with the green longbowman and the orange cannoneer. Wave after wave of maelstrom continued to come, never ceasing. He realized the stromlings had stopped coming for a moment and deactivated his force field. He nearly collapsed as the adrenaline left his system. The minifig with the cannon stumbled over to him and held out a hand. "I'm Darkwolf," he said. Fusion took the hand and shook it. "Fusion." "Stasis capsule?" "Yeah." Fusion was about to continue, but the bowman backflipped through their conversation. Fusion was amazed that the hooded warrior still had enough energy to perform feats of acrobatics after the horribly long battle."I'm Olarin," he said. "I'm the guy with an eye for destructive ways to try and make maelstrom fly." Fusion had the feeling that he would both like and dislike this man at the same time. After introducing himself and Darkwolf, Fusion felt a lot better than he had since he had climbed out of his capsule. He had allies, plans...and he was exactly twelve years old. Thanks to his helmet's telescopic vision, Fusion was already locked and loaded when a boiling cloud of maelstrom appeared on the horizon. It soon resolved itself, all too quickly, into a battalion of bat-winged, spear-carrying destroyers. Fusion could see the ground burning and sizzling where their feet landed. "Maelstrom sighted. Fire at will." grunted Darkwolf. Olarin loosed an arrow into their midst, hitting a bat warrior directly between the eyes. The arrow exploded and vaporized the creature. A small purple orb floated in the air where the massive warrior had been. Fusion watched in absolute disbelief as the small purple orb began to shake and spin. Bricks snapped away from nearby rocks and the ground to form a swirling vortex around the orb. The orb released a massive purple pulse, and there, directly where the vortex had been, was the exact...same...warrior! The blood drained from Fusion's face as the creature simply shrugged off another arrow from Olarin's longbow. The army of darkness was nearing their position. Darkwolf yelled a challenge and let loose with his cannon. The situation didn't look too optimistic. The situation didn't get more optimistic as the battle wore on. The warriors continued to re-form themselves whenever attacked, and fed on the resistance to grow more powerful. Not that they weren't powerful enough already. Darkwolf's cannon was on its last power pack. Olarin was out of arrows. As Fusion smashed another warrior (who instantly reformed), he saw Darkwolf go crashing into a wall. Olarin was slowly being pushed back. Something smashed into Fusion's back armor plate. He tasted blood. As he fell, he noticed a long blue comet streaking across the sky. Fusion was on the ground, pain shooting from a wound in his back. Darkwolf was unconscious. Olarin was slowly being pressed back towards a wall by dozens of stromling invaders. Clouds of smoke were billowing up everywhere, results of the maelstrom bombing of the lab. High above the battle, the comet broke orbit, speeding down towards the planet. "If this is the end, I'm going to take a few of them with me." So thought Fusion as he lay on the ground, arming his self-destruct device for a massive explosion. At least if he died, the Maelstrom would not have the vital technology contained in his suit. A bat-winged monster raised a massive hand for a final blow. Fusion never blinked as the fist descended. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a blue streak of light about to impact the ground. processing... processing... target/InfinityWarrior/MaelstromContact...sighted... processing... SuitThrusterShutoff?/execute... ActivatingHeatShield(00073645277)... IMPACTin5... 4... 3... 2... 1... releaseTimeWave/ConcussiveBlast... SquadmatesSighted(Assembly0021/Venture0022/Paradox0023) CONTACT MADE INITIATE PROTOCOL 5 HelmetSystemsShutdown/Initiate... Processing... A massive blue shockwave blasted outward as the comet finally hit the ground. Fusion stared at the fist that had been descending for the kill. It was no longer moving. All the maelstrom around him were frozen exactly where they had been standing seconds before. Fusion looked over to see that, where the comet had landed, a figure armored in blue and gold was down on one knee, hands pressed to the ground with intense concentration. The blue wave that had stopped time still emanated from his body. A huge blade rested in a sheath on his back. ---Malkath - Sentinel Blade Guardian, charges into the fray with the MasterBlade, a massive sword whose blade can split, move, and become a doublesword when more finesse is needed. Joined the mission to eliminate the Master Forge for reasons unknown, except, "Not a single minifigure more is going to get stuck powering that thing. Ever."--- The man in the blue and gold armor jerked, as if being pulled by invisible puppet strings. Another pulse erupted from his body. Fusion suddenly found himself rising off of the ground, surrounded by a light blue, transparent force field bubble. The orb quickly ascended into the sky, merging with three others containing Darkwolf, the man in blue, and Olarin. The blue guardian had gone unconscious after the last surge of energy. The energy bubble continued to rise, reaching orbit. The blue "comet" was once again soaring high above the sky, this time containing three extra passengers. The energizer and stabilizer of the energy bubble was unconscious, lying on the floor of the interstellar transport sphere. Fusion's armor had automatically closed the gap that had been opened where he had been struck. As he looked around at the bowman, the gunner, and the comatose swordsman, he knew that he was together with his team. They were like a loaded trebuchet, a deadly weapon requiring only a target to inflict massive amounts of destruction. That target was to come all too soon. The universe has always had a dual nature to it, light and dark, good and evil, nexus and maelstrom. These two sides constantly war, as if on a giant chessboard. The four faction leaders control the white pieces, standing against evil. The Darkitect controls the black. This is not the battle in full, however. There is the constant mental struggle between the two players. There are tunnels in the woodwork, through which spies and sabotuers can travel. And where, in the huge abyss of the rest of the universe, do the captured pieces go? Chapter 2 In a tiny bubble of air, protected from the ever-devouring maw of the black vacuum by thin walls of energy, Malkath awoke. The energy drain caused by creating a time wave of that magnitude had temporarily rendered him comatose. He had rescued his team, as was a leader's duty. The others were waking up now, curious to learn who he was and why he was here. Wordlessly, he pulled a hologram sphere from his pack and tossed onto the floor. As the disk clattered across the floor, the half-awake Fusion snapped to full alertness. Instinctively, he targeted the round object, but slowly retracted his Orb Cannon as a hologram emerged and began to speak. The image projected before them was a minifigure. His eyes were covered by dark goggles, and a purple, black, and red eye was tattooed on his forehead. He was smiling sadly, as if optimistic about the future but unhopeful for the present. He began to speak in a slow, deep voice, surprising each of them by addressing them by their names. "Fusion, Darkwolf, Olarin, Malkath. Squad DXE-001. If this recording is playing, the labs have been destroyed and you have been released from stasis. You were built for a singular purpose. You are each perfectly suited to this task, greater warriors than any the Nexus Force has seen for an age. You are not Nexus, however, not entirely. You are an entirely new species of warrior, bred for a single purpose: to destroy the Master Forge. Men have tried for hundreds of years to accomplish this. 'Men' aren't enough. You are. "This hologram unit is currently downloading a list of your exoskeleton's capabilities. Reveal these to no one. Reveal yourselves to no one. The Maelstrom is all-devouring and pure evil. The Nexus Force is bureaucratic, bloated, and they fear the unknown. The planet Jestefad holds your destiny. Good luck, guys. End Recording." Fusion slowly sat back. It was a lot to take in, but he felt strangely energetic. His purpose was found. Malkath stood up. "Let's roll." Although called by some a "Fortress", Nexus Tower was a representation of the worst attributes of the Nexus Force. Controlled by vendors, undefended, and almost useless. At least that's how Fusion saw it. He felt invigorated by the breeze whistling past him as he clung like a spider to the side of the tower. All four of the squad had made a drop onto the tower, and had been climbing for hours. Fusion had paired with Olarin to hack some information out of the mainframe, and Malkath and Darkwolf were doing some "asset acquiring" at the Vault. You would think that even the most heavily snoozing guard would notice a hole being punched through the wall. The sentinel didn't. Malkath jumped inside and only glanced at the guard before pulling Darkwolf's grapple line through the hole. The duo stealthily moved through the massive door and stared in awe at the vault. Huge and towering, consoles strewn around the base, it was truly impressive. Darkwolf walked up to one of the consoles and extended a security probe from his gauntlet. Fusion slowly strolled down the Mainframe Access Hall, occasionally nudging a snoozing guard with his boot. Coma gas worked wonders. Olarin had decided to do it the crazy way, using climbing spikes to hand-walk across the ceiling. Fusion had located the door to the Mainframe Access, and was considering his options for getting it open. There was a heavy thump behind him. Olarin must have arrived. Fusion wasn't feeling subtle that day, so he simply decided to blow open the door. Fusion hated silent alarms. As soon as he had crossed the threshold of the Mainframe Access, he had noticed the laser tripwire perched on the door frame. He had blasted it, but apparently not quickly enough. A horde of sentinel guards was boiling down the tunnel towards the small door in which he was standing. Olarin, all semblance of good humor stripped away, was downloading the vital information onto a small data chip. Jestefad's coordinates would not escape them. Fusion adjusted the power setting on his Blasterstaff to stun and opened up on the guards. The first few guards had fallen rapidly under a withering barrage of stun blasts, but the still-growing force of guards had dragged in portable energy barriers. Not only did the guards have him and Olarin trapped in a dead end, but he thought he saw a Space Marauder dragging in a portable artillery battery behind the energy barrier. "87% downloaded, rate increasing!" Olarin updated from the computer terminal. "97...99...100! Let's move out!" Fusion was about to fire back a retort about there being nowhere to move out TO, but Olarin was already gone. Moving to the center of the room, he placed his knives on the ceiling and slowly began to turn them. The shape of a circle began to emerge. Fusion smiled, and tossed an advanced flash-bang at the guards. As they were stumbling around, Olarin finished the hole. A section of the ceiling crashed down, bringing with it a very confused Paradox girl wielding twin katanas. Fusion didn't have time for explanations. He fired a stun round, and leaped through the hole. Fusion cannoned out of the hole, emerging into a large room decorated in red and a violent shade of lavender. The Paradox eye symbol dominated the far wall, and beneath it was a purple sphere of astonishing diameter. The guards scattered across the room had begun to recover from their amazement, and were drawing their weapons. Fusion was confident in his armor, but he wasn't taking any chances. He dived into a nearby teleporter, hoping Olarin was following. He rushed past a few astonished vendors and customers, diving through another teleporter not far away. Fusion pounded down the corridor. He heard a slight intake of breath on his comm circuit. "Uh, Fusion, I think you shot Vanda Darkflame a couple of minutes ago." Olarin said. There was too much adrenaline coursing through Fusion's veins to care. He'd ponder the consequences later. He heard the click of someone else patching into the comm circuit. "Exit point in five feet, look for a large hole in the wall." stated Malkath's disembodied voice. Fusion jumped out of the opening, trusting that their energy-sphere transport would be waiting. He wasn't disappointed. Jestefad. A massive, bloated entity. A parasite larger than the host. The maelstrom prison planet. A fused mass of solidified lava and black rock. From orbit, it appeared to be a black boil on the face of the galaxy. That, Fusion knew, was where they was headed. They had reached their destination. The mission? Free the prisoners locked in Zero Complex, the largest prison ever seen in the galaxy. The objective? Eliminate the power source of the Master Forge. Every prisoner locked inside was unwittingly using their imagination to power the superweapon. Fusion was ready. This was the day when he put all his skills to the test. They had made planetfall about an hour ago, and were now approaching the gates of Zero Complex. For the third time that hour, he pulled up the databank file on the Complex. Blah, blah...there it was. "Prisoners are locked in units that induce travel into a sub-dimension, controlled by the minifig's imagination. In the prime dimension, the imagination is collected by the unit." Things always got complicated when you were dealing with dimensional anomalies. A red light flashed inside his helmet. It was time to move. Unlike their other missions so far, this was not a stealth op. The first warning the Maelstrom guards had of the incursion was a fireball engulfing the main gate. Malkath flipped through the wreckage of the gate. Though beset by several guards, and even a colossal defender mech, there was nothing but piles of purple goo around him in less than a minute. Meanwhile, using Malkath as a diversion, Olarin had used a grapnel arrow to sneak over the wall and had hacked the alarm system. Although several desperate guards attempted to activate the perimeter defenses, Olarin's firewalls stayed firm. The DXE squad was now in complete domination of the main gate. The secondary guard housing, just beyond the second wall, was now engulfed in flames. Darkwolf was currently in the process of mowing down the fleeing denizens of the barracks area. Olarin had finished hacking the system and had uploaded base schematics to their helmet systems. The prison area was just ahead, and currently undefended. It was time to move, before reinforcements arrived. Fusion was ready to start a riot. Valiance was happy. He had just finally completed the fifth and final tower of his castle. Now he was getting ready to start on the guardhouse. As he looked back with pride at his castle, he frowned. Something wasn't right. The castle was blurring, distorting...everything was going black. His property had disappeared. There was no light, wherever he was. Valiance felt around. He was in a small box, barely big enough for him. Wait...was that footsteps? He heard a cracking noise outside. Dim light filtered through a hole in the top of the box. Fusion peered into the containment unit. There was a single minifigure, weak and hungry-looking, crouched in the box. He looked up slowly and gave Fusion a wan smile. "I'm guessing this is reality, because I don't think my mind could come up with anything like this." he said. Fusion grabbed his arm and pulled him out. This minifigure was wearing a sentinel blue prison jumpsuit, and was thin and pale. He looked like he'd been in that box for a while. "I'm Fusion," the paradox DXE said. "and I'm here to organize a breakout." "My name's Valiance," said the sentinel. "and I'm here to help you." As with every prison riot, there was the initial wave of success, the inmates linking up with rescuers and rushing through halls, overpowering defenses. As with every prison riot, there was the push of the guards, sending the starved and desperate inmates back into defensive positions, pounded behind makeshift barriers by heavy turrets. But unlike every prison riot, there was DXE squad troopers to blast through turret emplacements. There were only four. And four was worth a hundred lesser men. But four was not enough. The squad convened in an empty armory to implement their contingency plan. The room small to the point of inducing claustrophobia, empty weapon racks glaring down like painful reminders of the men who had carried those weapons, fallen to the inward tide of the guards. The four instigators of the riot stood around a small, bright map projector. "This, is us." Fusion said, gesturing at a tiny room on the three-dimensional chart. The others' gaze followed his gauntleted finger as it moved to a different section of Zero Complex. "These," he said, gesturing towards a large barrier on the map, "are the Gates." "These gates are huge, towering all the way to the ceiling of the massive room in which they sit. Originally designed to stop rioting prisoners from proceeding, as they do now, the metal they were forged from is Forge Ore, an elegant blend of steel and maelstrium that cannot be pierced by a Nexus weapon. There is only one item that can breach the surface of these barriers, and this item is the Eternity Key. The Eternity Key is carried by the Warden, which wouldn't be a problem if the Warden hadn't disappeared as soon as we entered the complex." Valiance ejected another cartridge and sprayed the dark hall with phosphorescent sparks of blasterfire. Not too subtle, but it got the job done. The guard station adjacent to the Gates was secure. A whisper of darkness fluttered past his ear, and Darkfist phased into existence next to him. "You've been summoned." he said, gesturing towards the armory with a long knife. "Our rescuers need some more information." Valiance strapped his chaingun to his back, and jogged off towards the impromptu strategy room.